Channel Signal

Measurement. Measurement. Measurement. 0

Dec 21, 2011 | tags: Debra Williamson, emarketer, Marketing, measuring social media, social media, social media monitoring

It has been said that you can’t improve what you can’t measure. An article from eMarketer emphasizes that statement. Debra Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst, states,

“Marketers often think of social media measurement as listening and monitoring. But that is only one part of a fragmented process, which has contributed to a lack of focus for both marketers and vendors. It has also created a culture of data overload, in which metrics that do not have much business value have more importance than those that contribute to the bottom line.”

Alterian has just released a report that says that 70 percent of all senior management reports have no social media reporting in them. And this is at a time when marketing and public relations departments are asking for more and more dollars to finance the growing social media presence.

The reason social media is absent from these reports is because everything should work backward from the reports. What do you want to see from social media and how should it be compared to the other marketing initiatives? Social media metrics need to line up with the corporate structure so that comparisons can be made.

Social media is not some strange animal that nobody knows how to measure. However, it is strange when there is no context to the reporting and when the reporting has no home in senior management monthly reports.

Click here for the entire eMarketer article. But just had to get my two cents in first.

By the way, happy holidays to everyone. Best to you, your family, your community and the wildlife that lives around you.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Logo Wars 0

Dec 12, 2011 | tags: copyright, infringement, internet marketing, logo, skelanimals, skullcandy, trademark

Recently, Skullcandy filed a lawsuit against a kids’ toy animal company, Skelanimals, claiming the company infringed on the skull logo.

The facts are pretty straightforward. Skullcandy filed its trademark in 2003. Skelanimals filed its trademark in 2008. Skullcandy says that consumers will be confused by Skelanimals’ logo and that the company is using Skullcandy prestige to capitalize on the market.

Skelanimals is owned by Toynami, a U.S. toy company founded in 2000 by George Sohn. The company sells mostly anime-style products, but it has several non-anime brands as well.

Here are some other company logos that use a skull. The Skullcandy and Skelanimals logos are on the far left and middle, respectively.

These are just a few of many logos that are built around the human head.

Comments online about the lawsuit are running overwhelmingly against Skullcandy, most finding the action a waste of time and money.

You be the judge.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Breaking Through the Clutter 0

Nov 11, 2011 | tags: bike industry, Channel Signal, Grass-roots marketing, New media, Outdoor Industry Association, Outdoor Recreational Industry, Outdoor Retailer, Snowsports Industry Association, Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association, Strategy

Bots(robots), affiliate marketing sites, discount sites and link farms are all making the conversation very crowded for brands trying to get their message heard online. All the entities have one purpose and that is to sell product. Some of it is discounted. Some of it isn’t. Some are names of sites you have never heard of, and some are names like Amazon.

Recently, we were asked by a leading brand in the outdoor and ski markets to search for it and see what we find. Well, it wasn’t pretty. Channel Signal search engines, which have blacklisted over 10,000 authors and sites, still came up with a ton of junk surrounding this brand.

Why? Because the company had not delivered good online content and sales pitches (selling primarily discounted product) had taken over the brand’s identity.

We searched Twitter…could barely find any content about the actual brand.
Blogs…junk everywhere.
YouTube…better content here.
Online traditional media…not much.

To be clear, all of this sales noise is not all bad. A retailer, Amazon, posted 1,900 customer review ratings in the past year on a product produced by the brand with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Now, if you figure 20 percent of the customers who bought from Amazon wrote a review, that means about 10,000 sales in one year. Not bad from the online retailer.

However, the brand is being drowned out by the sales pitches. Can’t really call it noise because it does move product.

What to do?

First a brand must sharpen its identity online. Advertise to your target market about where to go…on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, your blogs, etc. In short, drive consumers to where you want them to go for your content. Then…

Fill these places with good content. Not content that sells stuff, but content that educates consumers. How to layer? Why a hat is important. Goggles and what they can do for you. Breathable socks. And make this information directly applicable to your product lines.

And then, build online relationships with your retailer partners.

1. Support online retailers with content they can push out and reprint on their own sites.

2. Train retailers to understand how to do things like embed a YouTube video, update their blog and utilize basic search engine optimization techniques.

3. License content correctly for reprinting/republishing through retailers with photographers, writers, video producers.

By building a grassroots content strategy through retail partners, brands can deliver better content online, serve their customers and drive sales with key accounts.

So, break out of the noise by building your content and building your partnerships with retailers.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

It Is Still Your Gut 0

Oct 27, 2011 | tags: Channel Signal, Marketing, New media, New media. outdoor recreational industry, Outdoor Industry Association, public relations, Snowsports Industries of America

Recently, while talking with executives about social media, I got three different messages from them:

1. I get it and we are building our social media presence.

2. I don’t get it and until somebody shows me the money, I’m not gonna get it.

3. I know that we need to get on top of the social media thing, but I’m not sure if it will do us any good.

Ok. Here is what social media data can do.

1. With the proper analysis, it provides insight and justification for your major decisions.

2. It gives you the truth. And remember, every post, whether good or bad, has a good deal of truth to it.

And your “truth” and their ”truth” may be completely different. Not the same picture at all.

3. It gives real-time feedback on the performance of your products.

4. It provides trending information, which will be a leading contributor to upcoming sales forecasts.

Here are some things that data cannot do:

1. It can not make decisions for you.

2. It should not be manipulated. If it is, it will be at great risk to your company and your career.

3. It cannot be your friend. When data says the momentum is good, it doesn’t care. When momentum is bad, it doesn’t care.

4. It cannot be ignored. Data is direct from are your customers, your life-blood. Ignore them and you ignore the performance reviews of your products. It is the beginning of the end for your company in the 21st century.

I say these things because recently there has been too much emphasis on both the power of social media and the weakness of social media. Both are true.

Social Media Reporting becomes a competitive weapon when you:

1. measure correctly

2. analyze

3. deliver the data in a way that senior managers can understand and compare to performance in other sectors of the enterprise.

And when data is delivered this way, it is still your gut, but with more ammunition.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

The Cul-de-Sac 0

Oct 19, 2011 | tags: online branding, online marketing, social media, social media cul-de-sac, social media marketing

The Cul-de-Sac is a great metaphor for what happens in social media.

People (people online) steer into the cul-de-sac. Sometimes they are lost. Sometimes they are looking for an address. Sometimes they are just driving around.

Do they want anything from the owner of the house (Brand)? No. Not really. Maybe a little information.

Does the home owner (Brand) want anything from them? Well, in this case, yes, they want them to become customers. But the online environment doesn’t lend itself to persuasive selling. So there is passive selling through content. Or contests or giveaways, which is way worse.

So, most of the time it’s two ships passing in the night.

If you are a Brand, most of your friends and followers on Twitter and Facebook are just that:

Drive-bys.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

The Right Tribute 0

Oct 6, 2011

I came home last night, casually turned on CNN and saw that Steve Jobs had died. I felt like a friend had passed. I never knew him. Was never gonna know him, but nonetheless…there it was living in the pit of my gut. I saw this video tribute today by Adweek that was both simple and brilliant. A take-off of the “Crazy Ones” commercial from Apple’s Think Different Campaign of the late 1990′s.

Nothing else to say, but this…

Think Steve

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Why Social Media is Not There, Yet. 0

Sep 15, 2011

Sometimes I interview myself. Crazy, I know, but it does help me open new doors. It is a technique that I often use when writing strategy. So here are my thoughts on an emerging issue.

Is Social Media Important?

Answer: No, not by itself. It needs context. By this I mean, it needs to be compared to social media performances in the past months, and solid interpretation based on supporting facts. Otherwise, it is just noise with no storyline.

Is Social Media Important to Senior Management?

Answer: No, not in its present state. Most senior management meetings are concerned with the numbers: operational costs, retail sales numbers, budgets. These are real numbers that are trusted. Social media to these managers does not contribute to the decision making.

Could it?

Answer: Yes, but two things need to happen. Social media needs to make sense on its own; again being put into context; and that means trending and interpretation. Something like… “this is our volume of conversation on this issue last month, and this is the volume for this month. It is trending up, and here’s why, in our opinion”. Now, management has every right to quiz the presenter on the interpretation. So it better be based on logic. And if it makes sense, you’ll get nodding heads.

Second, the sales numbers need to be compared to the social media conversations. Are there correlations? Are there patterns. Can social media conversations predict sales performance. Does increased “meaningful” social media volume correlate to increased sales in a month or two?

How can that happen?

Answer: It is critical to first know what you are looking for and what you want. And most senior managers want social media to be reliable trending information that helps predict sales. You then build backwards from there.

And what is the final goal?

Answer: Data that looks accurately backward (retail numbers) compared with data that is current and looking forward (social media). And that provides a well-rounded, balanced view of performance and upcoming performance.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

#Riots and @Cleanups: social media, activism and the greater good 0

Aug 9, 2011 | tags: #londonriots, #riotcleanup, activism, arab spring, london riots, social media

by Hannah Birch

Protests and uprisings in countries including Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain have pushed social issues to the forefront of the world consciousness. Unlike similar movements in past decades, social media has come along for the ride.

During the so-called Arab Spring, Twitter went from being a service frequented by narcissistic 13-year-olds to a vehicle that connects people and communicates efforts for change. Saudi women protested the driving ban by posting videos of themselves driving in public. The Arab Spring itself has a Facebook page.

The recent riots in London have been organized largely through what is part social media and part text message. The BlackBerry Messenger messaging service, which seems to be the platform of choice for rioting Europeans, functions much like Twitter in its one-to-many capacity but is a more private alternative.

A new trend has emerged, though. Those interested in aiding cleanup efforts reacted to the trending #londonriots hashtag on Twitter and began circulating #riotcleanup instead.

The action gained momentum. The hashtag became a username in quick order and the @riotcleanup account now has nearly 82,000 followers from all over England. For social media, this represents another coming-of-age. It’s not just about making a mess to make a statement. It can be about cleaning up that mess as well.

To keep tabs on these initiatives in the social media sphere, follow @Riotcleanup on Twitter. And yes, in case you were wondering, @MahatmaGhandi is part of the Twittersphere, too.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal